Help Needed For France - US Postal Rate From 1900 To 1930

Dear all,

I would like to know the evolution of France - US (or France-UPU countries) international postal rate from 1900 to 1930.

I have tried this site, which is often recommended in this forum, but I only found international postage rates from 1937 and onwards...

https://www.phil-ouest.com/TarifsPostaux.php

According to the used cover examples, I understand that the international postal rate was 25 Centimes in the beginning, but continuously increased to 50 Centimes, 75 Centimes, 1F, 1.25F, and at least by 1926 to 1.50F. It seems to me that there were frequent changes in the 1920s, and I would like to know exactly when the rate changes did occur - please correct me if I'm misunderstanding anything.

The reason I am looking for this is to have more clear understanding of US covers to france, both direct and redirected, bearing postage due markings ("T") and amount due in (gold) Centimes, and also French postage due stamps from that period. I have walked through the UPU conventions and detailed regulations up to 1928 and I think I have a good grasp of how these letters were handled, but not fully confident about the conversion from (gold) Centimes to French Centimes, so I thought that knowing the France-UPU postal rate should be the most straightforward path.

Thank you very much in advance !

- Hironobu

Might this help?

https://www.franceandcolonies.org/p...list/290.pdf

Wow this is perfect, and it is so interesting to see the international postage rate had been so frequently changed during 1924 and 1926.

Thank you !!!

- Hironobu

A pleasure. I have a feeling that Maury's catalogues show rates, but easier having it in tables.

A self follow-up;

I was informed from my friend, who saw this thread but not a member of the community (so that he cannot post reply), that the Wawrukiewicz book on U.S. International Postal Rates does include a table of international postal rate from outside US to US. I was aware of this book but simply thought it is all about postal rate from US to outside US... oh forgive my ignorance !

I shall be ordering the book (together with his U.S. domestic postal rate book) at the APS store soon.

Lots of things to learn, and thank you all for the support !

- Hironobu

The table mentioned in the previous post is in Chapter 29 - Insufficiently Paid Mail, in the International Rate Book by Wawrukiewicz & Beecher. There are actually two tables.

The Table for 1879 - 1950 deals with the surface rate for letters, postcards other articles and registry fees.

The Table for 1950 to 1971 includes the additional information for Air Mail.

These are large tables, consisting of 55 pages of tightly packed information.

Here is an extract from page 270, which has the section for France:



The image quality is a bit fuzzy because I had to reduce the file size.


For those who do not have a copy of W&B, these rates were extracted from the annual editions of the Official Postal Guides,, found there in a Table titled: TABLE SHOWING THE RATES OF POSTAGE CHARGED, ETC., generally found towards the end of each volume.

These editions of the Official Postal Guide can be found on Stamp Smarter at the Post Office Library page, here:

https://stampsmarter.org/learning/Home_USPOD.html

Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Here is a sample page from the 1900 edition:



These annual editions of the Official Postal Guide are large files, and cannot be viewed directly on Stamp Smarter, but must be downloaded. (Sorry )

Mike

Mike, thanks so much for the additional information as well as the original sources from the official postal guides! I've ordered the W&B on APS publication store, and while I'm waiting for delivery I'll dig into the jungle of PGs and see what I can discover there. Thanks again!

- Hironobu

Hironobu:

You're welcome. I hope you find the information you need.

If you need help navigating the US Post Office publications, contact me via PM.

Mike